There are five (yep, count ‘em – only five) allegedly Native Americans who are so upset by the term “Redskins” that they have sought help from the government to help them suppress this oppressive abuse caused by the use of the word itself. Perhaps they would prefer it if every right thinking person in America started calling the NFL team based in our nation’s capital the Washington “R-word”.

One wonders if among those five highly offended persons is the junior senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth (a.k.a., “Princess Fauxcahontas”) Warren. Or perhaps some other liberal-Progressive who has convinced themselves that they need to take care of their Native American cousins since they are so obviously incapable of caring for themselves.

But I digress.

But why are the Redskins the only professional sports team being singled out for this distinction? After all, there are the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves, the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Blackhawks. They all have names that could be interpreted as denigrating Native American peoples, and in fact some have been sued in what we generally refer to as competent courts over that very issue.

What about collegiate sports teams? There are the Florida State Seminoles who have cleverly worked with the Seminole tribal council to have the Seminoles themselves provide the half-time performances at Florida State games which has muted most criticism aimed at them. However there are still the Bradley University Braves, the University of Utah Utes and so on. The metaphorical jury seems to be still out on those terribly offensive team names.

According to what has been published on various left-leaning blogs, the use of words or phrases that are identifiable with any Native American culture is both offensive to the Redskin Five, but is, gasp, discriminatory as well!

Apparently “discriminatory” is one of those words that the left loves since it is absolutely a one-size-fits-all accusation. The accused must prove not merely beyond a reasonable doubt, but beyond a mere smidgen of a doubt that they are positively, absolutely not discriminating in any way, or even in any thought. And the left has given up on using the mechanisms that were designed to take care of these little difficulties. Why go before a judge, bring your lawyer, they bring their lawyer and have at it, when it is soooooo much easier to get one of Obama’s minions to take care of punishing the evil doers for you?

This “I’m offended by a word that doesn’t seem to bother anyone else, or my feelings have been hurt, so you have to give up your property rights, and potential profit that might be generated through the use of that offensive term” scam could really catch on.

Imagine lawsuits generated by midgets, er, excuse me, persons who are unusually height challenged, to forbid the San Francisco Giants from using the word Giant in any form of advertising.

How about the tree-huggers who hate internal combustion engines from filing suit against the Detroit Pistons. After all, pistons indicate that the evil hydrocarbon is being used, not to move people from one place to another, but clearly a plot by one (or even both!) of the Koch brothers to destroy the world.

The San Diego Padres or the New Orleans Saints could be accused by devout atheists (Is that even possible? Really?) of surreptitiously promoting religion.

The Chicago Bulls might find themselves on defense when a flock of offended vegetarians find a lawyer silly enough to represent them, since obviously the team name, “Bulls”, references the slaughter of animals for meat for which Chicago is famous. That is seriously offensive to the four or five who will be represented, I’m sure.

The truly pathetic thing about all this is that each and every one of these team appellations is intended as a compliment. Every team name is selected to portray strength, courage, persistence, or some other admirable trait. After all, no one that has invested in building a stadium and set aside millions upon millions to pay talented athletes to perform their wonders would turn around and tell everyone that the name of their team is the Jersey City Wimps, would they? Or the Iowa Cream Puffs. Do you think that the San Francisco Mental Defectives would sell tickets? (OK, maybe that’s a bad example.)

The point is that each and every team name is a compliment to some demographic that is thought of by the public as brave, heroic, stoic, admirable and something with which they would like to be associated.

Apparently the Redskin Five are offended by being told that they represent something admirable. They apparently prefer to be associated with something weak, flabby, ineffectual, moronic or pathetic.

Perhaps they would prefer to change the name of the Redskins to the Washington Obama Administration.

2 Responses to I Am Offended by Your Compliment!

Change the name to the Whiteskins. I think it would be great to have a team named after my color. We need more white pride and team spirit.
witty and wonderful column. Glad it is at AmericanThinker too. Have a beauitful summer, Jim!

What is even more disturbing, however, is that an agency of the Federal Government should unilaterally decide that removing a registered trademark from the Federal Register is acceptable without any respect to due process law, or without any evidence to support their action. Have we become so enamored of government overreach that we simply acquiesce when the Feds tell us how to live, or what should comprise our corporate logo? If the word Redskins is offensive to some group then let them boycott the NFL team. Let them convince season ticket holders to cancel their tickets. Let the free market decide the fate of the Washington Redskins from a financial standpoint should they choose not to bend to pressure from those who want to see a name change.

Use of the name ‘Redskins’ is a free speech issue. If we become so fearful of offending someone, somewhere through our speech, then what use do we have for the First Amendment to the Constitution.